‘Outstanding’ result for support service

The Hastings Community Support Service has been rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an inspection.

Inspectors rated the service ‘outstanding’ for being responsive to people’s needs and well-led, and ‘good’ for being safe, effective and caring. The overall rating was ‘outstanding’.

Hastings Community Support Service, based in Dalmeny Road, Bexhill, is a domiciliary care service which provides personal care to people living in their own homes. People using the service include adults who have a learning disability or an autistic spectrum disorder.

Amanda Stride, head of Inspection, Adult Social Care, said: “Hastings Community Support Service is clearly committed to promoting it’s ethos of putting people at the very heart of its operations and ensuring there is a strong focus on encouraging people to become independent and live fulfilling lives.

The vision and values of the service which centre around providing care that improves the quality of people’s lives, is strongly embedded throughout the organisation.

“The service was rated ‘good’ overall after our previous inspection in October 2015 and I am delighted that the provision of compassionate, high quality, individualised care has continued to improve.

“The staff and management should be proud of their achievement in attaining our highest overall rating of ‘outstanding’ and I would like to extend my congratulations to them”.

The report said inspectors found the service outstanding in the way it responded to people’s changing needs and put people first at all times. There was a strong focus on encouraging people to become independent and supporting people to live as able a life as possible by trying out new hobbies, activities, interests and form community links. People and staff felt a sense of well-being when this was achieved.

Inspectors also found people’s care and support was well planned, with comprehensive plans in place to guide staff. Care was personalised and individual to meet differing needs.

The report said staff showed passion and commitment to providing the best support to enable people to have full lives and people were overwhelmingly positive about the way they were treated with kindness, dignity and respect while receiving care and support from the staff.

Cllr Carl Maynard, East Sussex County Council lead member for adult social care, said: “Services such as this play a vital role in helping people with learning disabilities live full, independent lives.

“This report provides richly deserved praise for the service manager and her staff, who go above and beyond the call of duty to provide the best possible service to clients.

“It was particularly heartening to see recognition of the focus on encouraging and supporting clients to pursue a broad range of activities and interests and to play as full a role as possible in their community.